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The first Williamson Pop Culture and Entertainment Convention, Willcon, takes place this Saturday August 26th at the Williamson Field House in Williamson from 10am to 6pm. The event is put on by the Williamson Convention Visitor Bureau and meant to give the Tug Valley area an event to attract fans of all kind.

They will have a special exhibit from the art departments from local high schools and others. Plus several artists in attendance. Their line up of vendors will be selling video games and consoles, gaming supplies, comic books, graphic novels, board and card games, RPGs, toys, action figures, POPS, art, plush, jewelry, crochet items and other nerdy crafts, steampunk apparel, totes, and more.

The will have laser tag from Autannaco Family Fun Center, two escape rooms from Adventure Games, face painting, panels on anime and Game of Thrones, Pokémon Scavenger Hunt, cosplay contest, light saber battle demo, photo studio, music performances, writer’s workshop, and more. Table top gaming will be hosted by Play and Paint and include table game demos, gaming library, tournaments for Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokémon TCG. Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros tournaments by Rare Drops.

Admission is just $5 and free for kids under 10.

Another small event with a little bit of all kinds of fandoms for everyone to enjoy.

Vandalia-Con is this Friday May 26th to Sunday May 28th at The Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg. The proceeds from the con are donated to bring cancer prevention, screening, outreach, and education services to the women of West Virginia.

Most of the con’s events are on Saturday with Vandalia’s Got Talent variety show, Ministry of Silly Walks Olympics, Talk of the Tavern Podcast, and Late Night Stories with Mr. Cat. Panels and classes on costume design, Victorian archeology, whip demo, creating a steampunk opera or card game, gothic horror, children’s crafting and science classes, and several other topics. There are several Special Ticket Events on Saturday as well, each of these cost either an additional $10 or free for VIP pass holds; Captain’s Tea Party, Goblin Tea Party, Steampunk Storytime, Karnevil Sideshow, Professor Bubblemaker’s Flea Circus, and Professor Phinea’s Hypnotic Adventures.

There is a Maker’s Display and Competition on Saturday. Bring in your work, set-up between 11am to 2pm, and fill out a card. Judging will be at 3pm. Entries are $5 per entry, no limit of entries. Multiple prizes will be awarded.

Friday is the Pink Block Party, which is traditionally open to the public for free. They will have the Regional Mountains of Hope WV State Cancer Coalition Meeting from 10am to 3pm, a screening of Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic starting at 3:30pm, plus two panels on creative collaboration and graveyard archeology. The vending room will be open. Then there will be a concert from 9pm to midnight with Professor Bubblemaker’s Bubble Ballet and performances from both Steam ~ or~ The Specters of the Knox Mill and the Dead Flowers. The concert is $10 for those who have not purchased a weekend or VIP pass.

Now Sunday all they have on the schedule Quickdraw Charity Tournament.

Registration is $25 for a day pass, $20 for child’s day pass, $50 for the weekend, $40 for child’s weekend, and $100 for a VIP pass. VIP gets you into all the special ticket events and a VIP room access on Saturday night.

Fans of steampunk, alternative history, makers, and the like will have a fun time at this con. In fact I think this might be there best year yet. They have a nice guest line-up, plenty of events (at least for Saturday), are focusing on all events on site instead of a bunch of off site events, and their pricing is flushed out better than before.

WV’s steampunk convention, Vandalia-Con is returning this Friday May 27th at 5pm through Sunday May 29th at 3pm at the Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg. All proceeds from this event are donated to Bonnie’s Bus, to ensure that breast cancer screening, resources are available to all WV women who need them.

Friday is the Pink Block Party which is open to the public for free. There will be a Health Fair with a women’s health screenings from Bonnie’s Bus mobile mammogram unit with vendors and artists. A Maker’s Faire from 4pm to 6pm will be held for charity with creators allowed to enter artwork, crafts, stories, costuming, props, or other steampunk inspired projects. There is requested donation $5 per entry. There will be entertainment at the party from Professor Bubblemaker, musical performances, and a play by Pirate Crew of the Dead Rabbit as the kickoff to Vandalia-Con. Plus a Masquerade Ball.

On Saturday they will have a Nerf Quickdraw competition and a series of “Unusual Races” to participate in, a live recording of the Talk of the Tavern podcast, a Fashion Show (costume contest), and a musical jam session for anyone to join in on. They will also have classes and panels on steampunk culture and creating, American Folk Music, corsets, Houdini, Victorian archeology, spiritualism, and photography, Ghostbuster Junior training, and several more. They have a few special ticket events as well. A Treasure Hunt, a Pirate Show, Tea Dueling Tournament, and Karnevil’s Sideshow. These events are $10 each.

On Sunday they will have a Society for Creative Anachronism fencing tournament down at Bicentennial Park or ballroom depending on weather.

Single day Saturday or Sunday passes are $20, weekend passes are $50, Silver Passes which gives you a local tour package and Masquerade Ball ticket are $75, and Gold Passes which gives you bigger tour package and entry into all ticket events are $100. Children 10 and under can get tickets half-off.

Fans of steampunk and other alternative history genres will find something to enjoy here, along with costumers, music and history fans, and a little general geekery. All for a good cause, if a little on the pricey side.

They will be having a Nerdy Book Exchange, costume contest hosted by Flabbergast the Wizard with three age categories for both male and female, a silent art auction, magic show by Flabbergast, paranormal investigation round table, sumobot competition, brony and pegasister meetup, and Paranormal Party live recording. Panels on Jack Kirby, strange history, comic creation, steampunk on a budget, the 501st and USS Angstrom. Workshops on writing and publishing, latex application and sculpting, filk writing, and Nerf Modding. There will also be a charity raffle and the 501st Legion will be doing a fundraiser of their own for the Wytheville Community College Scholarship Foundation,

Vandalia-Con is a steampunk convention with all proceeds going to breast and cervical cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment resources in WV. It’s second ye will be once again in Parkersburg at the Historic Blennerhasset Hotel from May 22nd-24th.

Expect to see the Miner’s Lament Saloon and Red Eye Auction on Friday night, Chari-Tea Dueling Tournament and Airship Regalia on Saturday, and costume contest on Sunday. Panels and classes on seances, archaeology, costuming, gaming, manners, science lab for kids, writing, sneak peek movie screening of Hollow, Johnny Appleseed reneactor, late night stories with Mr. Cat, and several more. They have off-site guided tours of the Historic Smoote Theater, the Oil and Gas Museum, two historic Victorian homes on Julia-Ann Square, and a self-guided tour of Blennerhassett Island.

They have music guests Spence’s Rye and Eli August and the Abandoned Buildings. Other guests include performer Professor Bubblemaker, performance troupe the Pirate Crew of the Dead Rabbit, Clark Street Carnival, vaudeville sideshow Karnevil, and steampunk artist and author Thomas Wileford aka Lord Featherstone.

There will be vendors of jewelry, clothing, photography, belts, bustles, knitting, and various steampunk artisans.

On Sunday they will be holding their Vandalia-Con Pink Block Party again for free and open to all at Point Park Farmer’s Market. A parade will be leaving the Blennerhassett Hotel at 1:30pm and will head to the farmer’s market. Vendors from the con and the market will both be set up to buy from. There will be musical performances, Professor Bubblemaker’s Bubble Magic and Medicine Show, and a health fair with mammograms screening on site from 10am-4pm.

Weekend passes to the con are $50, Silver Passes are $75, and $100 for a Gold Pass. Day passes are $20. Children 12 and under receive a 50% discount with an adult purchase.

If you can not make it out or afford the con, you still donate to the cause on their site.

Wyvacon is a small sci-fi con in Wytheville, VA holding their third event this year. It will be at the Wytheville Meeting Center on Saturday July 26th from 9am-5pm. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under. There will be food and drink sold by the meeting center, no outside food allowed.

Some of the events at the con are 501st will be holding a charity raffle with prizes from local artists, vendors, and businesses, a book exchange where you can trade up to three sci-fi or fantasy books for three others, silent art auction, and costume contest at 12:30pm with three different age categories and one for pair or group. There will panels on comic book illustrations, brony meet-up, paranormal investigations, gamer creation, Japanese comics, filking, space & science, plus demonstrations on latex, 3-D printing, steampunk weapon making, and miniatures painting.

The steampunk convention in Parkersburg, Vandalia-Con, is coming up on May 2nd at the Blennerhasset Hotel and there the have announced some more exciting events and activities for the weekend.

First steampunk musician Unwoman will be appearing. Everyone who buys a weekend pass, or higher, will get a free pass to the Parkersburg Arts Center, the Smoote Theatre (an authentic Vaudeville theatre), and tours of some of the Victorian homes in historic Julia-Ann Square. A live fire performance on Saturday night. The WV Ghostbusters will be holding kid friendly ghosts hunts on Saturday. There will be three screenings of the White Zombie movie. Costume Contest on Sunday with many categories from best steampunk reimagination of a character to best facial fuzzies. A Mark Twain impersonator will be giving a performance on Saturday morning. Also the vendors list has added a number of new dealers, mostly steampunk jewelry and crafts.

They have listed a number of panels and workshops: Piracy in the Steampunk Genre, Mystery Airships of 1897, Victorian caligraphy, Vaudeville, Self Defense with Cane and Umbrella, Professor Bubblemaker Kid Science, A Tribute to Houdini, letter writing workshop, air craft workshop, maker’s workshop, and more. I will be doing a Nerd Music 101 panel on Saturday at 4pm.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to viewOn Sunday there will be a parade starting at 12:30pm from the hotel and going to the Riverpoint Park and once at the park there will be a free concert by Unwoman, Professor Bublemaker’s Medicine show, Battle Weary Band, food vendors, health fair, and women’s screening clinic. All of this will be free and open to the public. The event goes from 1p to 4pm.

Well if you make it out come and find me to say hi. Remember the price might be a bit much but it does all go to charity.